The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

99 Grove St. | map |

Opened: The building opened as the Exposition Auditorium on March 2, 1915. It was built for the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Thanks to Nick Wright for this lovely 1915 postcard view. It was a post on the San Francisco History Facebook page.

Architects: John Galen Howard, Frederick Meyer and John W. Reid, Jr.

There had been a 1911 design by Carl Warnecke that had been commissioned by Arthur Brown, Jr., a gentleman who would go on to design the War Memorial Opera House with G. Albert Lansburgh. Comments and drawings related to this early "A Public Auditorium" design are down at the bottom of the page.  

Capacity: 8,500  

 

The convention of the Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America was one event in 1915. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this ad.

The San Francisco Opera used the building from 1923 through 1932. They performed there again in 1996 when the Opera House was being renovated.

 

A page from the December 1926 program for Max Reinhardt production of "The Miracle," a production brought to San Francisco by producer Morris Gest. After this engagement it went to the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles. 

 

Another page from the program. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it on eBay where we only got images of six of the eighteen pages. Also included were: cover - statement from Morris Gest | the "Miracle" committee | next attraction | ad for Brunswick Panatrope |

 

 

A page from the 1948 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. That's the Civic Auditorium in the upper right and the Fox Theatre below it. Market St. is on an angle in the lower right. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the Library of Congress collection. 

 

 

A closer look at the Auditorium from the 1948 Sanborn. That's Grove St. across the top, Polk St. on the left and Hayes across the bottom. 

In 1992 the facility was renamed the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. The building is now managed for the city by Another Planet Entertainment.


Interior views:

A 1914 construction view from the San Francisco Public Library. It made an appearance as a post on the Lost San Francisco Facebook page.

A construction view in the collection of the San Francisco Public Library. It's on a fine PPIE100 page with other photos of the building. Thanks to Mark Shankel spotting the page.

A December 31, 1915 photo by Horace Chaffee for the Department of Public Works. It's one of many photos of the building appearing on the Open SF History Project website. 

A 1922 view of the setup designed by G. Albert Lansburgh for a visit by the Chicago Opera Company. The photo, from the scrapbooks of Hamilton Henry Dobbin, is in the California State Library collection, their item #01382051. 

Gary parks comments: "The ceiling certainly looks Lansburghian. He did a massive tent ceiling for the Shrine Auditorium in LA, of course. It's a little-known fact that he also did one in the late Teens for the Kinema Theatre in Fresno, which inspired Pflueger in his design for the Castro. The Kinema's tent ceiling later got remodeled out of existence, if several batches of photos are to be believed."

A 1924 photo that was published with this caption: "Are symphony concerts appreciated? Every seat in the Civic Auditorium filled to hear conductor Hertz and his Orchestra. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding the photo for a post on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page.

A photo from the July 1930 issue of the publication The Municipal Record. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding it for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. The caption: "Magnificent New Canopy in Auditorium - Designed, constructed and installed by the J.L. Stuart Co., this beautiful new canopy is without doubt the largest and most spectacular hand-painted canopy ever created."

A 1948 campaign event for Thomas Dewey and Earl Warren. The photo from the S.F. Examiner collection appears on the Open SF History Project website. 

A 1949 ceiling view by Eddie Murphy for the S.F. News. It's in the San Francisco Public Library collection. It was published with this caption:

"The 30-ton canopy in Civic Auditorium has been cleaned, fire-proofed and redecorated by J. L. Stuart Co., and today was hoisted back into place. The 92,000 square feet of canvas hides the unsightly web of steel girders in the Auditorium's upper area. The great lightoliers that hang from the roof are in the foreground, ready to be raised. It's the first time in over a decade this big laundry job has been done."

A 1958 look at the canvas ceiling. The S.F. Daily News photo by Eddie Murphy is in the San Francisco Public Library collection. It appeared with this caption:

"Wear and tear of the Civic Auditorium's false canvas ceiling has been visible for years. Now the Fire Department adds its critical judgment: The canvas, 35 years old and not flame-proofed for 10 years, is hazardous and must come down. Workmen will begin the job tomorrow. At center is a view of what the ceiling will look like afterward. The city has budgeted $117,000 to replace fabric."

A 2014 photo taken by Justin Yee during a Phish concert. The photo appears on Live Music Blog. 


More exterior views: 

 

A June 1914 view by Horace Chaffee for the Department of Public Works. The photo appears on the Open SF History Project website.

 

A 1914 construction view located by Jack Tillmany for a post on the BAHF Facebook page. 

 

A 1915 photo located by Jack Tillmany.

A c.1915 view of the Auditorium and City Hall, looking south from Larkin and McAllister. The San Francisco Public Library photo by R.J. Waters & Co. appears in Mark Ellinger's Up From The Deep survey of Mid-Market architecture.  He notes: "The block-long excavation in the foreground marks the site of the California State Building, opened in 1922."

A 20s view from the air taken by U.S. Air Service. Thanks to Ragui H. Michael for posting the photo on San Francisco Remembered Facebook page.

A c.1930 look toward the building from City Hall. Thanks to Roger Rubin for finding the photo for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

 

A photo from a 1935 ad for a LaSalle Coupe in front of the Auditorium. Thanks to Roger Rubin for finding the photo for a post on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page.

 

A detail from a 1946 Morton-Waters Co. photo taken from 9th and Jessie that's in the Open SF History Project collection. Thanks to Art Siegel for the image. He notes that the signage below the "Auditorium" sign at the Market/Hayes/Larkin intersection is for "Up in Central Park," which played the venue in October.

A 1953 photo from the San Francisco Public Library collection.

Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this 1958 shot. The octagonal-roofed structure in the upper center is the Civic Auditorium. The Fox Theatre is below it with Polk St. to the left.

A c.2008 view with Fox Plaza in the background. It's a photo by J. Ash Bowie appearing with the  Wikipedia article on the Civic Auditorium.

Looking along the Larkin St. side of the building toward Market. Photo: Google Maps - 2019

The back of the building as seen from Market St. That's Hayes St. on the left and Larkin on the right. Photo: Google Maps - 2019


An earlier unbuilt design:

This plan appears in a Terry Helgesen scrapbook that's now in the Ronald W. Mahan collection. Helgesen's comments with the drawing: "An early design for the Civic Auditorium at San Francisco. While it faces the Civic Center, the streets shown are not as finally re-built after the fire. At the time these drawings were made, the Civic Center design had not quite been 'set' (it wasn't till after World War 1)." 

An elevation and sections for the Warnecke design. Terry Helgesen's comments: "Published in 1911, this design was by a very young (Warren would come later) Carl Warnecke, and was sponsored by Arthur Brown, Jr. who, with William Blakewell, designed the City Hall and the Opera House (with Lansburgh). The exterior was much handsomer than the later built design, but the actual auditorium would seem to be a bit larger (12,000) on Howard, Meyer and Reid's actually built structure." Thanks, Ron!

More information: Over 250 photos of the building are in the San Francisco Public Library collection if you care to go browsing.

The Open SF History Project site has about 100 photos of the Auditorium.

And, of course, Google will show you hundreds of recent photos. 

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